Conquests of England

[Kortpeel (imported)]

Taken from the Political Board, the thread on successful occupations of other lands

“England has been over run and conquered many times.” Ramses

Not lately though.

The first occupation that anyone knows about, and not much at that, was when the Celts took over England. Who they took it over from is not known or when. Certainly the Celts were well established when Rome tried a trial invasion in 55BC and later when the conquered the land in about 43BC

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So that was 2 conquests.

The Romans granted the Celts home rule and pushed off back to Rome in AD 410. By that stage the Celts were civilised and peace loving. They were ahead of their time you might say which was unfortunate for them. They were no match for the warmongering Angles, Jutes and Saxons who saw Britannicum as a land that was theirs for the taking. And they took it. It wasn’t an organised invasion, they just arrived in small groups and grabbed some land. They could fight well enough to hold it so the Celts had little option but to migrate Westward and become the Welsh.

That was the third conquest. My personal feeling is that it is the most important one because from the Germanic languages of these invaders English evolved. Today we call that language Old English or Anglo Saxon. It was so different from the language that we speak today that we could not converse with the Anglo Saxons yet they called their language English.

The Anglo Saxons fought a few wars with each other, eventually unified England, and then had a lot of trouble with Danish invaders. They’d just got the Danes sorted out when the Normans invaded in 1066.

The Norman Conquest was the fourth and last successful invasion of England. William the Conqueror started life as William the Bastard (literally) became William Duke of Normandy and ended up as King William the first of England. He was a shrewd, hard man. Any opposition to him would get your head chopped off. In those days a king had to be like that or the opposition would soon enough kill him.

The changes at the top had little effect on the common people of England. Life was tough enough without getting involved in politics. They just went about their daily round and over a couple of centuries or so developed their language to Middle English, the language of Chaucer. By that time the Kings of the day and descendants of the original Norman nobility were English speaking too. In 1362 the English language was adopted as the language of parliament and law. The English had come into being as a nation.

By about the end of the sixteenth century (Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I) people were speaking what is now called Early Modern English. You could have a conversation with Shakespeare with just a little difficulty. The King James bible is a splendid example of Early Modern English.

Since 1066 other people have attempted the conquest of England and failed. Philip (of Spain), Napoleon and Adolf come to mind.

[MacTheWolf (imported)]

I'd say that island has been only over-run twice: 43 BC when the Celts came and 1066 A.D. by the Normans.

If anybody doesn't consider Celts to be a threat, they should ask the Romans how much living terror they felt from the Picts - heh heh

[moi621 (imported)]

Y'all miss the POINT.

The invader is assimilated into, England.

And looses allegiance to a "mother country" quickly.

Questions?

Professor Moi